Floating nets

Thierry Bornier is a big fan of China and never tires of exploring the natural treasures that the country possesses throughout its immense territory. Despite its growing urbanisation, the Middle Kingdom has been able to preserve some of its most spectacular landscapes, to the point that the photographer has devoted over three years to it and eventually found a home there in order to appreciate this majestic setting on a daily basis. Thierry Bornier has roamed the most incredible locations and is currently working on a tribute to the Chinese ethnicities whose identities are doomed to die out. Once he has identified the location that will form the subject of his next photograph, he climbs up to the highest point in order to dominate the view and waits for long hours to obtain ideal lighting conditions. We could misjudge and confuse his images with paintings, given the brightness of the colours and the structured character of the forms and lines.

Specialising in nature and Chinese landscapes, Frenchman Thierry Bornier is a self-trained photographer. Once a financial director in the New York fashion industry, National Geographic revealed his artistic talents in 2010, with the nomination of one of his photos on the rice fields of Yuan Yang in the South of China. Ever since, he has dedicated himself to this art, leaving number crunching behind him for good. The photographer constantly travels between his residence in Kunming in Yunnan province, where he captures historic landscapes that are listed as UNESCO World Heritage, and the megalopolis of Shanghai where he photographs the rising stars of Chinese haute couture. He has been published countless times in National Geographic and has received numerous distinctions (Photographer of the Year at One Eyeland 2012 and 2013, Gold Medal for PX3 Paris 2015, Finalist of the LensCulture Prize, Best Landscape Photographer of the Year at the Epson Pano Awards).